ICC 2015: Orange doesn’t count. A Dutch fan’s view

I’m just one of a couple of thousand cricket fans in the Netherlands, and today I found out that we won’t have any World Cup heroes for the next eight years. We won’t even be playing any cricket that matters at all for the next five or six years. Very wise men decided this, so it must be good. For someone, or something. But I don’t get it.

I had been looking forward to this year’s cricket World Cup for a long time. Wondering what my countrymen could achieve, longing to see the real stars of the big nations, hoping for upsets and surprises. I was not disappointed – at first. The first match of the guys in Orange promised a lot, close as we were to another big shocker after the Twenty20 World Cup. All of a sudden, people in Holland were talking about Ten Doeschate and Borren. Then came the Irish, doing even better, rocking the cricket world for a moment. And everybody likes the underdog, right? I sensed a lot of sympathy for the smaller nations, especially in Group B. But after a while, looking at results and schedules, I realised that the chances of a REAL upset were too small to calculate. The first weeks of cricket were, although fun to watch, about… well… about nothing, really. The big cricket countries in Group B would always have a chance to iron out any mistakes in this long first round. And in Group A there never were any wrinkles to iron. Friendly matches, taking weeks. Yes, the ICC should do something about that.

So, in all its wisdom, ICC decided that next time they would have a tournament just as long, with even more matches that don’t matter at all, but with fewer nations. I just could not believe it. Words that are not allowed on a cricket field came to mind.

A worldwide sports federation is responsible for a lot of things. One of them is to organise big tournaments. Another one, just as (or maybe even more) important, is to support the popularity and development of the sport – worldwide. Not in six nations, not in ten, no: worldwide. A federation like ICC should have development programs for smaller nations, help them close the gap with the test playing countries, and in the long run create more excitement in tournaments and, as a spin off, generate more revenues. A bigger sport, even more viewers than now, more sponsors. Win win. But no. Instead, they stabbed the smaller nations in the back. “Thank you; maybe we’ll see you in eight years. What’s that? You’ll lose sponsors because of this? You’ll have fewer youth players because of less TV coverage and a lack of heroes, so the gap will only get bigger? Too bad. Nothing we can do. Bye now.”

I’m not only a cricket fan. I’m a sports fan in general, and there are plenty of sports that provide good examples of how it should be. Like them or not, but soccer federation FIFA has plenty of development programs, financial and technical, for nations that aren’t quite there yet. Partially out of idealism, and partly because they understand that a bigger sport makes them stronger. And EVERY country in the world gets a go at winning the World Cup. Or look at ice hockey, with its World Cup for A, B and C countries. They understand that you need matches that matter, on every level.

Clearly, the way this year’s World Cup was organised was wrong. Too many matches, not enough excitement. ICC tried to fix it the wrong way round. And it would have been so easy. Expanding would have been the solution: 16 nations, in four groups of four. After that first round, you have two groups of four countries. Then semi finals, and a grand finale. Less games, more excitement.

Imagine India, England, Bangladesh and Canada in one group of the four. Maybe Australia, Pakistan, West Indies and Netherlands in another. Any mistake for the top countries would have been lethal. Almost every game would have mattered. And for the smaller countries, there always would have been a chance for an upset. Remember Cameroon in the 1990 soccer World Cup? Australia in 2006? Or New Zealand in 2010? Well, not in cricket. I can imagine the USA, China or Russia playing in a cricket World Cup in the future. But sadly, it’s just my imagination. We don’t matter. Orange doesn’t count. It’s clear now. And sorry Ireland – doesn’t matter how well you did. Nobody cares.

My non-cricket loving fans tell me, that cricket has missed a chance of becoming “a proper sport”. The more I think about it, the more I fear they are right. In April 2011 cricket has lost its future.

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